Huge Hands

Sorry NJ, I have to disagree. I love the Precision shape, but for me my regular gigging bass HAS to be five strings. With this in mind, and the fact that I don't have the spare cash to fork out on a new Fender or Lakland similie, I have just bought a second hand Squier Precision V. It has Jazz pickups, but for me it's the neck feel (I like cricket bats!) and look of the guitar that gets me. I am just waiting for the postman to deliver my custom build 5 string Wizard 84's for it. One day I might take a chisel to it and fit a proper split coil precision style pick up, but I'm not brave enough just yet! I completely see what you're saying, but it appears there will alway be a niche market for Fender to exploit with traditionalists like me. It's not just us bass players though, I once played in a blues band who kept pressuring me to change my Cort (Ibanez lookalike) because it was "too modern looking".

I used to use the Csx800 amps that Ironside 1966 attached a few years ago, but with a separate crossover. I have never used the internal one. It looks to me by looking at the connectors on the photo, that to use that properly, you would need to go from your mixer into the jack inputs on the crossover section, and then put a jack to jack patch lead from the relevant crossover output (high or low) to the amplifier channel input. You would then output from the amplified output section (binding posts or jack). I think the output from the Hi and Low jacks are at line level, not amplified. I would prefer to see the diagram on the top of the amp before I said that was definite. IIRC, the Bose 802 crossover is a passive unit that confusingly is all jack inputs and outputs. The amount of "engineers" I have seen plug that up AFTER the signal has been amplified is untrue. And that's from people who claim to know what they're doing!

I've got it on again now. I think it must have been recorded to promote that album because most of the stuff is off there and the crowd don't really seem to clap in anticipation when Ben Folds introduces them, although they do when the first album tunes are called. I agree, they wrote some very good stuff. All three appear to be doing some really good 3-part harmony vocals as well.

Yesterday, in HMV, I found a DVD of Ben Folds Five "Live Sessions at West 54th". I think it was recorded mid-late nineties (sorry can't be @rsed to look at the box!). Anyway, I've had it on full blast all night while Mrs HH has been out. I had forgotten how much of an influence Robert Sledge was on me when I was first playing, not that I play anything like him. I'm now even thinking of getting a distortion pedal to blend with clean signal to fatten out our band sound! Classic. For you gearheads, looks like he's playing an Epiphone Les Paul and an upright (on one song). I can see a Marshall head and a Marshall and an Orange cab. Quality! A one for the "Underrated Bass Players" thread if ever I saw one. Just thought I'd share that with you. Cheers!

Just purchased some "bling" gold straplocks from John. Not exactly a Warwick Thumb I know, but I'm excited anyway. Quality service, and a canny blurke to boot. Arrived very quickly. Just waiting to take him up on the offer of a cuppa (and stottie sandwich) one day!

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='233249' date='Jul 5 2008, 05:40 PM']I have a large holdall for carrying cables and the like to gigs. It got wee'd on by one of our cats.[/quote] One of our cats is kind of bulimic - he wolfs his food down which upsets his stomach and then he throws it all back up. While you're on your hands and knees trying to clean it up, he's usually whingeing for the next course. We have to feed him half a packet at a time to stop him overeating - but it means he's always asking for food! He once climbed up on top of my Ashdown rig (I have no covers) and barfed on the top edge so it then slid over the side. It took ages to get the furry coating on the amp clean. Good job he's got one of those "I'm innocent" type faces. You can't dislike him for long......

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='233198' date='Jul 5 2008, 04:03 PM']Fold it inside out and stick in on the washing line for a few days.[/quote] Erm, I assume you mean the gigbag and not the guitar!

Sorry, put this in the wrong forum. I can't see how to change it. Can the mods help?

This week, I have just purchased, for cheap, a second hand Squier Standard Precision V. My intention is to eventually mod it up and put new pickups/hardware on etc. I was also thinking of painting it, but the metallic green finish and white pickguard are really growing on me. However it stinks! The guy I bought it from, although seemingly very nice, appeared to not be a regular washer, and I think he also smokes as well. "When I was a lad" we called his type "Crusties", but I assume that is not a politically correct term, and I apologise if I have upset anyone with that comment. I was just trying to put a picture in your heads. I am left with a bass, gigbag and strap that all stink of nicotine and unwashed dreadlocks. I can throw the strap away, but I'd like to keep the gigbag as it's not a bad one (for free). I have been spraying it with Febreeze, but now I am left with a gigbag that stinks of nicotine, unwashed dreadlocks and stale air freshener. As it is in the "little room", I don't think Mrs HH has noticed the smell yet, so I haven't been ordered to get rid of it. Does anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of the smell? It's really getting up my nose an p***ing me off!!!!

[quote name='chris_b' post='228674' date='Jun 28 2008, 06:44 PM']I had this situation....soundman (with big ego); "I always use a DI box. I get a better sound"! Well... It's [b]my[/b] sound not his and everyone else gets a great sound out of the back of the amp so in my opinion it's not his choice. I prevailed! Mostly I use 2 channels, a DI from the amp and a mike in front of the cab.[/quote] Chris - I assume you're taking about studio recording here? Believe me, in a big venue with a large PA, tightly packed stage with thundering drummers, vocalists insisting on loud monitors and suchlike, the last thing a soundman wants to do is mic a bass cab if he can help it. As the previous poster said, you just get way to much spill, it adds to feedback rumbles and problems (and the soundman's headache). Being in a band is about working together with your "team" and making sure you all mix in well together, including not insisting on something that may b****r up your gig. I wish my band understood that, especially in regards to level of backline - we'd all have our hearing intact! By all means insist on your own sound, but work with the soundman to get it. Some will be @rseholes and refuse to be accomodating whatsoever, that's just one of those things we have to deal with. Some will be happy to help as long as it's not going to cause major problems that neither of you have much chance of controlling.

I'd try tracing the cables to both drivers inside the cab. Hopefully, at some point, there will be a connector which means you can swap the feed between each driver with out having to use a soldering iron. Feed the signal intended for one into the other and vice versa, and see if the problem moves. If not, then there's likely to be a problem wih the driver or the bit of cable up to the swap. What you described does sound like a knackered driver - does it move with the same amount of resistance to your push than the working one? It could be a faulty connection between the voice coil and the cable terminals, which you could try and freshen with a soldering iron. Otherwise it's probably a new driver or re-cone required. All the best with it.

[quote name='misrule' post='226139' date='Jun 24 2008, 07:31 PM']That's fair enough -- he's the famous one. What's his singing like? Cheers Mark[/quote] Erm, I don't really want to comment too much on that really. He held a note well, was in tune, but I don't think he'll be worrying Amy any time soon. He sang "That's Life" and "I'm in the Mood for Love" while struggling to read the words off a sheet on the table (he didn't have his "readers" with him). He seemed like a thoroughly nice bloke so don't want to appear to slag him off. Fair dos to him for having a go.

Got a scan of the picture from the paper today (attached). If you look hard enough, you can just see my knee in the bottom left of the picture. Now that has to be the worst claim to fame ever! Remember, if we did get famous through this, you heard it here first!!! I wouldn't hold your breath.....

Assuming it's all legit, as far as I understand it, the early ones with those headstock decals are very desirable. I imagine that with such a low serial number, it will only help too. However, that is all academic if you love it and don't want to get rid of it. Mine has the large Squier logo but still reasonably low serial number. It has a tort pickguard. It is definitely not, nor will it ever be for sale, unless I fall on some seriously hard times! Enjoy it.

Thanks! I've sent the link and number to our singer and guitarist who are better sweet talkers than me!

[quote name='misrule' post='225273' date='Jun 23 2008, 07:17 PM']It might have gone straight to their website without troubling the paper.[/quote] Thanks Mark. I assume it was the web copy of tonight's paper I was reading. Looks like the centre pages, part of the "London Buzz" section.

Oh well, we were all excited for a while.... There we were, playing a regular monthly slot in Jazz After Dark in Soho on Saturday night, when Mitch Winehouse, father of Amy came in. After he and his partner appeared to like our first set, he got up and sang a couple of tunes with us. As Pete Doherty and Amy often get in the venue (the venue owners are very proud of this), there just "happened" to be a member of "the paparrazzi" there who took some photos. I think it might have been a set-up, but being the dopey bass player, and not paying any attention, I didn't hear or find out what the true story was. We were told this photographer's usual paper was the free LondonPaper that comes out every afternoon. I have just found the small photograph of it in the e-copy on their website and guess what.... A body shot of him and no mention of us at all in the photo comment. I think my right knee may be in shot (I was sitting on a stool due to space)! I only managed to get two halves of it off their site because it was in the middle of 2 pages. I only managed to get it in pdf format, so I don't think I'll be able to put it up here. If one of my colleagues remembers to pick me up a copy on the way home, I'll try and scan it in. I don't suppose there's any point - just a middle aged bloke with a microphone Oh well, que sera sera.......

[quote name='cheddatom' post='225152' date='Jun 23 2008, 04:38 PM']They don't listen to radio 1 do they? Sorry, OT I know, but our warehouse guy at work has it on all day, and I keep hearing the same 5 f*ckin' songs over and over.[/quote] You want to try commercial radio. Not just the same 5 songs, but the same adverts as well. I believe it's all to do with PRS fees as mentioned in other threads. The less variety in playlist, the less time they have to spend logging what they've played. I'm so glad that James Blunt's "Beautiful" seems to have rotated off the playlists. It was a nice song when I heard it the first 10 times.....

I'm still waiting for them to get five string P's in (with Jazz Pups). They've just run out of 5 string black jazzes which was going to be my fall back if I couldn't take the wait any longer

It's also good practice to book the gigs. IMHO, the hardest part of being in a band in having members who are prepared to put in all the extra work required to chase down and find you regular gigs (unless you're good enough to have a manager or agent!) I get away with it in our band, as I'm the one who often drives the most and gets PA's/technical stuff when required. For that, they let me off chasing gigs, but if I spot a golden opportunity, I'll help out when I can. Good luck, and enjoy it. The goal of most bands is to be tight and mistake free, but you only get there with regular gigging. We gig regularly and still haven't managed it!

I bought a white short scale Fenix bass (don't know model) from Grott Guitars in Newcastle along with a 15W Solex practice amp, all for about £100. Must have been around 1991 ish. It felt like the body was made of some sort of plastic, or was plastic coated. After some humming and haa-ing, I remember the guy told me if I couldn't get on with it, I could return it within a year and get my money back. So, after about 11 months and 29 days, I took the bass in there and took him up on his word! He wasn't very happy about it, but begrudgingly handed over the notes. I used that to add to my paltry savings to purchase my Squier JV Jazz which I still have. It was a bit of a cheeky thing to do, but I felt he had ripped my unsuspecting folks off a while earlier when purchasing a cymbal I wanted for my birthday (I wanted a crash, he sold them a massive 20" crash ride that had cracked and been repaired). Looking back on it now though, I'm not sure how much of it was his fault or my dad's, for stubbornly wanting a "beautiful piece of engineering". I still have the practice amp, which lives in my folks' loft. If I'm ever up there for a while, I sometimes use it for noodling with my sister-in-law's Westone Thunder 1A that she can't, and never, plays.

[quote name='ironside1966' post='222936' date='Jun 20 2008, 02:03 PM']A sound check for me is nothing more then setting the levels and sorting out the foldback, it is the bands that turn it into a chimp’s tea party.[/quote] Agreed. I often have to tell our guys to wind it up, as once set up, whether it be for a sound check or gig, they just love to play. CK, the guy in the hat and keys does sound like a stereotypical d**k. No argument from me. In my experience, good sound engineers are hard to find. Being in the industry myself, I have seen all sorts of top end blokes where you're thinking "now there's a difference in creative opinion, and there's just s**t" and there are some very clever guys who knock around with unknown bands and do a really good job for £30 and a couple of beers every night. I find, that the ones with a good theoretical background (i.e. us college/university boys) seem to fair well because not only can we create good sounding graphic EQ patterns, we can say why! However, experience is the key. I walked out of university and went to my first big rig gig and was s**t! I then spent a few regular gigs of either getting it a bit wrong and scraping through, and then finally got to a level where I think I was pretty good (there are probably plenty of bands out there who may think differently!) I also always had the motto: [i]If I walk away from a gig that I think couldn't have sounded any better, then it's time to quit. I wasn't concentrating hard enough.[/i] I took this attitude into all my gigs. I was very protective of my craft (sometimes I felt it was art!) and would get a bit put out if a band didn't like what I'd done. I would always try and stay happy, but it's true you do have to be thick skinned. There is a very fine line between being authorative enough to stop 5 strangers taking the p*ss and coming across as arsey. Some bands get it, some don't.